Cowboys will win final three

IRVING – Fear not, Cowboys fans. Your team will win its next three games.

Sunday’s blowout loss to the Saints was embarrasing, especially for the defense. But it won’t happen again this season.

The Cowboys will beat the Falcons, whose receivers are as bad as the Saints’ receivers are good. And there’s no Reggie Bush on the Atlanta roster and there’s certainly no Dree Brees.

Even the Cowboys safeties can survive against Michael Vick.

After dispatching the Falcons, the Cowboys will take care of the Eagles on Christmas Day. No Donovan McNabb, no problem.

Ditto for the matchup with the toothless Lions.

Count on it: the Cowboys will finish 11-5 and enter the playoffs on a roll.

It just won’t be the kind of roll Bill Parcells envisioned.

Cowboys report card

Rush defense: Deuce McAlliser finished with 111 yards on 21 carries for a 5.3 average, but he had only 33 yards on nine carries at the half when the outcome was still in question. Grade: C

Pass defense: Drew Brees completed passes to 10 different receivers en route to 384 yards and five touchdowns. He went 26 of 38 with no interceptions for a 140.8 rating. Keith Davis and Roy Williams both stunk. Bring on Tony Parrish and fast. Grade: F

Run offense: Julius Jones’ 77-yard run for the game’s first TD was a thing of beauty: Great running and great blocking. But when the score got out of hand, the running game became an afterthought: Grade: B

Pass offense: The Saints picked off Tony Romo twice and sacked him twice. Romo threw a TD to Owens, but that ball should have been intercepted. Grade: D

Special teams: Martin Gramatica’s wide-right miss from 43 yards hurt big-time. The kick return team left the field red-faced after the Saints executed the onside kick to perfection in the third quarter. Grade: D

Coaching: Bill Parcells and his staff were embarrassed by Sean Payton, who made all the right moves. The 15-yard penalty against Parcells for throwing the red review flag with less than 2 minutes in the first half also hurt. Parcells, a guy who stresses discipline, showed none in that situation and it cost his team badly. Grade: F

Overall: This was a big game with playoff implications, but you never would have known that by the Cowboys’ performance. Grade: F

Notes

Brees’ five TD passes tied for the second most by an opposing quarterback in a game. The Giants’ Y.A. Title had six in 1962. Brees is tied with St. Louis’ Charles Johnson (1962), Cleveland’s Bill Nelson (1969) and Minnesota’s Daunte Culpepper (2004).

The Saints gained 536 total yards, the third most by a Dallas opponent. The Houston Oilers hold the record, racking up 583 on Nov. 1, 1991.